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Realistic human portraits are a favorite of artists as each artist portrays with his hands and with his skills unique drawings or renderings of the human form. They try to make it real as possible. Almost everybody would like to posses good artistic skills. Few actually do, but with the help of this article, and a little practice, anyone can become a better artist. Let's begin!

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Begin with a light pencil outline of basic shapes to get the dimensions of the objects right. You can eyeball it or use a ruler. Then work on sketching concrete shapes, like circles and rectangles, still in pencil. Then continue to add more detail. Shading and small details should be last. Don't be afraid to mess up- proportions are key.

If you have a hard copy, you can trace the portrait on tracing paper with a pencil, use pencil to transfer it onto another sheet of paper, and color it in. If not, try to observe the portrait's style and try to use similar values, colors, and shapes.

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wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 39 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 221,336 times.

It can take some time to excel at drawing people, but if you practice often, you’ll soon be able to make a nice portrait. To make a realistic portrait, start by drawing a circle for the head. Then, draw 2 lines extending into a point for the chin, and draw a curved line around this point to round out the jaw. After this, draw horizontal lines across the face to use as guides for the eyes, eyebrows, nose, and mouth. Once you’ve drawn the facial features, erase the guidelines. Then, you can add in details like the hair, neck, and shoulders. To learn how to draw a cartoon portrait, read on!